Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,421 to Brennan, et al. are existing aircraft seats with various conventional components. Illustrated, for example, in FIG. 7 of the Brennan patent is a typical tray table adapted to deploy from the rear face of the seat in front of the user. Such table may assume either of two positions: (1) a horizontal position parallel to the deck on which the seats are mounted (when the table is in use), with arms connecting the table to a fore seat outside the envelope of the seat back and (2) a vertical position substantially perpendicular to the deck for when the table is stowed. Arm rests either are fixed in position or pivot upward from their nominal positions of FIG. 1 of the patent.
Described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,593 to Lambiaso is an alternative aircraft seat in which a tray table is stowed in a cavity within an arm rest. Although a cover of the arm rest may pivot to allow access to the cavity, the position of the remainder of the arm is fixed relative to the seating deck. Similarly, arm rests of U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,994 to Bentley, et al. have covers allowing access to tray tables, but the arm rests themselves do not move independently of the seat frame.